shape photos on Flickr

PERSONAL FUN FACT: It still feels surreal that Colleen and I have more than just one African American Barbie from the 1980s in our collection. For years, my lone Day-to-Night doll was the only African American Barbie we had, and up until she was re-rooted and reunited with her original outfit, she was rather shabby. I was tantalized by the AA Barbies of this generation from the get go. I recall the first time I ever saw one was when I got "The Ultimate Barbie Book" during the spring of 2010. This was before my resurgence back into doll collecting. I was just sticking my toes in the water so to speak. But flipping through the pages of the book, I was enamored by the wealth of information I had been ignorant of. I had no idea that the earlier African American Barbies looked so gorgeous. They have a unique head mold that was not used in the 90s and 2000s, when I was purchasing Barbies at the store. I also appreciate that this particular doll is from one of the most iconic lines of all time, at least to me anyways! The Great Shape collection means two things to me. First, and most importantly, I owned two of the blondes as a little girl. When I was twelve years old, Dad bought me two cases of old Barbies at the local Salvation Army. In one of the cases was mostly 80s Barbies and clothes. Back then, I didn't realize that two were Great Shape. This was especially difficult to detect back then, since I had no knowledge of the many 80s variations. It turns out that my girls were in fact one in the same, one was simply the Hong Kong variant, the other from the Philippines. It was the dolls from this lot of mangy friends that sparked my interest in the 80s. Granted, many of our first dolls also happened to be from this decade, but the later part of it. Without my first two Great Shape dolls and their comrades, I don't know that the 1980s would have ended up being my favorite decade of Barbie to collect. So it means the world to me that I have her African American counterpart (who by the way is even more gorgeous than the blondes)! Secondly, I think it goes without saying that it's RAD that Great Shape Barbie was featured in Toy Story 3. So this adds even more novelty to owning any Great Shape Barbie. Although I would have been blown away had Colleen and I found this doll "in the wild," her origins are even more special and significant. Every Christmas since 2013, a relative of ours has picked us each out a boxed Barbie. Typically these dolls are from the late 80s/early 90s. But in 2018, Ray decided to find us something he knew we wouldn't have. He didn't realize that this was my favorite decade to collect, and that I had loads of dolls from it in my collection. He was spot on when he found us EACH an African American Barbie. Technically speaking, Colleen opened up Great Shape, and I got 1986 My First Barbie. But we more or less share the dolls we get every year. And since I'm an avid collector of all 80s Barbies, and all AA dolls, she knew I was even more excited about the new additions to our collection (thus why I'm writing about her). It was truly a miraculous event getting to de-box such an iconic Barbie, let alone an African American one from this decade. She preserved very well, despite being boxed for 35 years. Most dolls are not so fortunate...she only suffered from dry rotting elastics and slightly sticky shoes. Barbie's hair luckily was spared a tacky fate, and after a boil wash it is insanely shiny and buttery soft. I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that we were lucky enough to open to AA Barbies from the decade. I'm not sorry that we had not had much luck previously finding dolls like this, since it made receiving them all that much more miraculous on Christmas night 2018. They will forever be a cherished part of our collection, and I will always be grateful that our family member thinks of us, and takes the time to pick us out wonderful dollies!

SHAPESTUDIOS X REBORN EVENT by SHAPESTUDIOS

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♡︎ I Present To You 3 New Shapes & 1 Gift!!

All Shapes Can Be Found At The Reborn Event 10/20 At 12pm slt.

Gift Shape Will Be Located I’m Front Of The Booth For 50ls

♡︎All Shapes Are Shown On Ebody Reborn.

All Shapes Includes:

Head Shape

Body Shapes

Brow Shape

StyleCard With Landmarks

♡︎Taxi: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/eBody/64/244/24

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lamp shape by Megan Lane

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Shape in Steel by Randell Sprouse

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shapers by Jeroen Wagemakers

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I bought this big selection of Wella Creative Shapers. These rollers are made for perming, because of the shape of the rods the resulting curls will look much more natural.

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